UE WONDERBOOM Bluetooth Speaker Review

UE or Ultimate Ears, has released a brand new Bluetooth speaker in the WONDERBOOM. This speaker is meant to bring in those customers who may not be interested in purchasing a Bluetooth speaker, by pricing it at just $99. They have also made it easy to use, and are aiming at providing users with a great experience. The WONDERBOOM comes in a variety of colors as well, allowing the customer to pick and choose which color they may want to buy their WONDERBOOM in. The UE WONDERBOOM was announced last month, and was actually quite popular. We've spent about 3 weeks using the the UE WONDERBOOM, and feel that it is a pretty great Bluetooth speaker, if not the best, under $100.

To start things off, the UE WONDERBOOM is going to be the entry-level Bluetooth speaker in Ultimate Ears lineup. It's not replacing the ROLL 2, which is still a great speaker to pick up, but it's coming in just below the BOOM 2 which costs around $200 and can typically be found for about $150. Now the WONDERBOOM does lack a few features that other UE speakers have. One of those is a 3.5mm input jack, allowing you to connect your phone directly to the speaker instead of using Bluetooth. Another is the ability to connect multiple speakers together. With the BOOM 2 and MEGABOOM you can connect up to 50 together and have them playing the same thing. UE said that they wanted to make the WONDERBOOM easy to use, so you can connect two WONDERBOOM's together by tapping them together, and that's about it. No more than two can be connected, unfortunately.

You'll notice with the UE WONDERBOOM that there is the power and Bluetooth button on the top along with the "UE" logo up there. The logo is actually a button as well. Now it's not as clickable as we'd like, but it does work and work well. This button is used for playing, pausing or skipping to the next song. You can tap it once to either play or pause the music, then tap it twice to skip to the next song. It's pretty simple, and that is the overall message here with the UE WONDERBOOM. On the front, you'll see Ultimate Ears signature volume buttons, which work as expected.

One of the more interesting features of the WONDERBOOM is actually its durability. The UE WONDERBOOM is waterproof, but it can also take a drop or two without getting damaged. On top of being waterproof, the WONDERBOOM actually will float, so if you toss it in the pool, it'll float along at the top and continue playing your music. Of course, the sound won't be as good as if it were dry and not in a body of water, but still cool nonetheless. The battery on the UE WONDERBOOM is pretty decent for its size. It typically lasts around 10 hours on a single charge, and that's 10 hours of continuous playback. Considering how loud and how good the audio is on the WONDERBOOM, that is actually pretty impressive.

Now to the good stuff, the audio quality on the UE WONDERBOOM. It's not quite as good as what you get out of the BOOM 2 or MEGABOOM, and of course you wouldn't expect it too, since it is about half to two-thirds the price of those speakers. But you will be surprised at just how loud the WONDERBOOM can actually get. It gets loud enough to fill an apartment or a small home, easily. It also sounds good outside, and can fill a backyard pretty easily. Now the actual quality of the sound is about average. There's plenty of bass here, but things start to fall apart when we start looking at the highs. They are still somewhat sharp, but not quite as good as other products from Ultimate Ears. For most people, this won't be an issue though.

The UE WONDERBOOM appears to be a great Bluetooth speaker for those first time buyers, it's also a good way for Ultimate Ears to get those buyers into their brand, starting with the WONDERBOOM and perhaps buying the BOOM 2 or MEGABOOM down the road. There's a lot to like about the WONDERBOOM. It's a great looking speaker, with great sounding audio and of course great battery life. And at $99, it's almost a steal. The UE WONDERBOOM is available now from Ultimate Ears' website and will be coming to other retailers including Amazon, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T in the next few weeks.

Alex has written for Androidheadlines since 2012 as Editor of the site and traveled the World to many of the biggest Smartphone and Technology events. Alex has a background in Technology and IT and Deep Passion for Everything Android and Google. His specialties lay in Smartphones of all budgets, Accessories, Home Automation and more. Contact him at [email protected]